Keith Proctor

A life-long attachment to painting and an appreciation of good design per se is something that’s been passed down to figurative artist, Keith Proctor by his late father, Mark. A driving force behind Proctor’s emergence as a high profile contemporary artist, Proctor Snr encouraged his clearly gifted son to capture anything and everything on paper, canvas or whatever surface he available to him at the time, and to develop and nurture his natural talent. Anything and everything in the countryside local to him in his native Northumberland more often than not meant nature itself, and the transient vistas and creatures that shaped it. So Proctor began preserving real-time images of all that crossed his path, be it birds, dogs and horses or the landscape itself, and its rivers, streams and coppices, before his aptitude allowed him to capture people and towns scenes in and around the county’s predominant city, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Proctor quickly became acutely aware of the impact that light, shape and colour had on paintings, something that he was taught by observing the work of artists like Raymond Harris Ching and Manfred Shatz, who he described as promoting vivid, evocative portrayals in these key elements of a prescribed piece. Indeed, Proctor is self-educated in art from every perspective, having undertaken no formal training in the subject, nor gaining qualification to speak of. Rather taking the talent he had, and sculpting it courtesy of researching how established artists achieved their techniques and adapting a trial and error approach to his works from the outset. This learning and need to refresh styles and directions never wanes, and Proctor admits that he’s fallen into something of an obsessional painting routine. In terms of the mediums he favours, Proctor has shown an uncompromising predilection for oil in latter years, yet has frequented everything from watercolours to pastels before arriving at, and feeling a sense of comfort in, said heavy oils. Board, linen or cotton canvases provide the surface area.

Returning to Proctor’s stimulus before pioneering his works of art, and the figurative artist speaks of the simplistic, stripped-back study of ordinary people engaged in their everyday pursuits, whilst also drafting the germ of an idea from just the way an individual might stand, walk or sit. According to the artist himself, sometimes merely observing the shape of a person is enough to engender an artistic response and the starting point of something creatively dramatic. However it’s Proctor’s fascination and ultimate take on what he refers to as ‘the innocence of children’ which has become aspired to become his default artistic setting in recent times, which neatly dovetailed in with the birth and subsequent early years development of his own son, Jack.

After taking a sabbatical from his oft-regimented and overly-disciplined painting modus operandi, Proctor has now reconnected with his passion, bringing a fresh approach and more cohesive outlook which fuses his painting commitments far more considerately with the upbringing of his young son over these past couple of years. By combining arguably two of the most important factors in his life, Proctor has almost reinvented himself through his art, and focused on instilling the joys of youth on anew, appreciative audience of art lovers and collectors.

Ironically, Proctor’s introducing of his son Jack into pieces, came about quite by accident, and yet unintentionally paved the way for his son’s incremental inclusion. The artist was experimenting with people studies, which included his son on a particular rough approximation which he’d given the working title of ‘footsteps’. This study was depicting the special bond between father and son and the closeness that this habitually fosters from an early age. Taking a step back from this painting, Proctor realised he’d hit on something, and knew that Jack would make further appearances as he quasi-documents his journey through those early years. Proctor encapsulates the very essence of Jack (and youngsters in general) as being these totally free spirits, unrestricted by the burdens and responsibilities of an adult world, at base level simply ‘a little boy doing little boy things’ as he sums it up. And who can argue with that? Whilst Jack is Proctors own flesh and blood, Jack is symbolic of that generic youngster; innocent, natural, instinctive and spontaneous and therefore there’s a rawness that Proctor feels the need to preserve in oils. The subject matter could in reality be anyone’s son, brother, grandson or nephew; as Jack is essential Proctor’s muse.

The 1990s saw Proctor’s work showcased at galleries across the UK, as well as being exhibited in America. In London, this meant at the Tryon Gallery and in the USA, the Klausner Cooperage Gallery was the location.